MMSS in hometown watering hole, the Tom Thumb in Kokomo, IN. feb 08...doing Buddy Miles' THEM CHANGES...

I am borrowing this moto from a group in Bowling Green, KY, Fat Mouth Mojo. They said we could! I have tweaked it somewhat to fit..... i think others shoud do the same! MANY others!

"_____________" is a group of musicians who love to play music. We play orignial music with a blues/soul/rock twist. We don't play college rock, we don't play pop music and we especially don't play "Mustang Sally", so don't even ask! We're NOT trying to be rock stars or get famous. We just want to play our music and have a good time doing it. So head to the dance floor and enjoy some good loud ass tunes!  If you enjoy what you're hearing, buy a cd or 5!

After 15 years, former Muncie resident still able to pay his bills while doing what he loves – playing the blues

By MICHELLE KINSEY. Muncie Star Press. Muncie, IN 3-08
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Fifteen years.

It just didn’t seen possible.

"Fifteen years this year! (It) all began in Muncie," Mike Milligan wrote in a recent e-mail.

Surely, it wasn’t that long ago when I met Mike Milligan in his cramped apartment on Charles Street. The walls were covered in Stevie Ray Vaughan posters. His guitar rested against his knee -- it was never very far from him.

At the time he was a Ball State student, getting ready to graduate with a degree in art education. But what he really wanted to do was play the blues. And if it paid the bills, even better.

Milligan, 36, is still playing the blues, and paying the bills. He and his band Steam Shovel -- Mike’s brother Shaun on bass and Robert "Tiny" Cook on drums -- perform all over the state and beyond, even in Stevie Ray’s neck of the woods.

"I’m still trying to stand my ground and do my own thing," Milligan said during a recent phone call.

Milligan, who now lives in Kokomo, has recorded a handful of albums and turns in more than 150 shows a year, many of them with some of the greats -- Tower of Power, Robert Cray, B.B. King, Al Green, Buddy Guy.

The band has a standing gig at the House of Blues in Chicago.

But you’ll still find the trio playing in these parts -- the band plays every month or so at Mr. Mouse in Yorktown and will perform at CenterStage in April.

Milligan grew up in a musical family (his dad played with The Drifters) and he’s definitely passing that on. His four-year-old son Maceo has performed with Dad on stage several times. "He’s got a great voice," Milligan said, adding that the little entertainer performed with Dad’s band in front of more than 1,000 at Chicago’s Navy Pier.

Milligan and Steam Shovel have mastered the art of covers, such as Life By The Drop, and What’s Goin’ On, but what you usually get is originals, written by Milligan.

The originals go back to the band’s first album, a self-titled effort released in 1998.

"My songs are usually a direct reflection of what’s going on in my life at the time," he said. The song titles, he said, on the band’s latest CD Timing Is Everything say a lot -- Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone, Bring It On Home and This Is Not Goodbye.

When asked what has kept the band going for these 15 years, Milligan laughed.

"I’m stubborn," he said. "Sure, people told me at the beginning that I should quit and do something else. But I don’t like to be told what to do. And, come on, success is the ultimate revenge for all those who said it wasn’t going to happen."

Timing Is Everything

Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel’s fifth CD in stores; music is about reaching people

By Patrick Munsey  Feb 23, 2008

Staff Writer, the Kokomo Perspective

Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel may be the best-known band in Kokomo today. For the past 15 years, Milligan, his brother, Shaun, and drummer Robert "Tiny" Cook have been delivering a mixture of rock, blues and jazz to audiences across the Midwest, and the musicians recently released their fifth CD, "Timing Is Everything," in December. Already it is receiving good reviews.

This time around, Milligan added horns and background vocals on some of the numbers; something he hadn’t done since the band’s first album. Perhaps that is why "Timing Is Everything" feels so familiar to him.

"The writing is a little better, but otherwise it still feels like it did 10 years ago when we recorded the 1^st CD," said Milligan. "Most of the material was written two years ago. We played it out and let it develop; then we recorded it. I don’t go straight to the studio. It’s like sending your kids into the real world. You don’t want to send them out until you’ve raised them.

"By letting the songs develop on stage, we can get them where they need to be. I don’t know why so many people pay for studio time and then go and write and record some songs. I don’t know that I’d want to hear too many of those."

The band is particularly pleased that the new CD was picked up by Best Buy stores and is available on the retailers Web site as well. Past releases have been featured by Meijer and Karma Records.

Putting songs on an album is just part of the business for Milligan. Unlike many other bands, the CD isn’t the goal. It’s just a means to his ultimate end -- making an impact in people’s lives.

"Most groups think, ’Hey, we’ve got a CD,’ and it is a good door opener," said Milligan. "But I’m not concerned about that anymore. I’m just worried about working, writing songs and reaching people. I don’t know if we’re ready for a big deal. The recording companies will tell me when we’re ready. For now, I have five releases on my own label and we’re doing great."

Ten years of writing and performing have had a somewhat unexpected side effect for Milligan. He has created a vocal history for himself, which makes each creation more personal.

"With each song, I can look back and remember what was going on in my life at the time I wrote it," said Milligan. "They’re mile markers."

Because of the nature of the writing, Milligan isn’t concerned about entertaining people, though he does. He finds his rewards in relating an experience that is shared by his audience. A connection.

"I get calls about my songs all the time," said Milligan. "They’re about learning that you’re not the only one who has gone through something. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one or you have a brand-new baby, and one of my songs reaches out to you. It’s about life. I’m trying to fix mine, and in turn, people see themselves."

Music also creates a bond for Mike and Shaun with their father, Mike Sr. The elder Milligan is a considerable musician in his own right, and though his focus is the ministry instead of touring and performing, Mike (jr) makes sure each CD is a family affair. In fact, Mike Sr. earned a writing credit on the latest CD.

"This was the first time we wrote a song together," said Milligan of his father. "It has been a tradition for dad to play on every CD. On the first one, he was just strumming. On the second and third, he played lead guitar. On our live CD, he actually got on stage with us for a song, and he’s on this CD, too."

Milligan said the writing collaboration developed because they both had been working on a song with a similar theme -- tattoos. The body art is present on every member of their family, and Milligan was interested in exploring the history of the art form.

"Fifty years ago, not everybody had a tattoo," said Milligan. "Bikers, sailors, gang members and prisoners had them, but if you wanted one, you went to the back room of a cigar store or got one at a carnival. And that’s what the song is about. The lyrics aren’t life-changing." , he laughed.

The band plays an average of once a month in Kokomo , but that’s just a small stop on the year-long tour schedule. Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel plays 150 dates a year or more, with 80 dates already scheduled for 2008.

THE ESSENTIAL

MIKE MILLIGAN AND STEAM SHOVEL

by

George Fish

The Bloomington Alternative.

Bloomington, In

2-11-28

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            I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Mike Milligan for a decade now, and during this decade watch him grow as a guitarist and musician, a songwriter, and a singer, becoming, with his band Steam Shovel, national-quality blues-rock performers who are respected as such—while still continuing to live in Central Indiana!  Mike, now 36, and the two other permanent members of Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel—brother Shaun, 33, bassist, and Robert "Tiny" Cook, drummer, are all full-time musicians, although "Tiny" is also an engineer for Escience, a multi -million dollar home theatre company that’s made home theatres for former Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller, pizza entrepreneur Papa John, and the Drake Hotel.  Mike first formed Steam Shovel in 1993, with Shaun joining in 2000, and "Tiny" Cook in 2005.

            Kokomo-based Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel have played across the country and been well received, even in the you-better-know-blues-if-you-want-to-play-here environs of Austin and Central Texas.  Indeed, Cutter Brandenburg, tour manager for Stevie Ray Vaughan and his long time friend, wrote of the band, "I was lucky to have a club a few years in the Killeen, Texas area (about 65 miles north of Austin) called ’Cutter’s Texas Music Hall and Wild West Cantina’ in Harker Heights, Texas. …I was lucky to be able to get many great artists from all over the country to come and play. I feel certain all that did felt the presence of Stevie, it somehow made all artists play a little bit better in that they knew somehow Stevie was listening. The night we had Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel was so strange. …Mike and Steam Shovel pulled in, and I could feel them before they played. …The moment I heard Mike play guitar with his tone and passion, I knew this guy again was the real deal. …Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel feel and have the passion.  Stevie used to gauge players on if the hair on his arm stood up. He would look to me, point to his arm and smile real big and go ’Whoooo! Ceeee.’  I felt that in my soul that night with Mike and the guys from Steam Shovel.  I know somewhere my best friend was looking down and saying ’Yepper cee whooooooo!’"

            Characteristically, Mike Milligan is modest about his musical accomplishments, saying simply, "[A]s with anything I’ve done, it has come with much persistence, hard work, honesty,  and good timing.  The music speaks for, and sells itself. It gets us House of Blues shows in Chicago, Cleveland.... everywhere. It has allowed us to open for Tower of Power, Robert Cray, B.B. King, Al Green, Buddy Guy...and tons more."  Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel are regular players not only in places like Chicago, where they regularly play at both the House of Blues and Red Fish, but also on their home turf as well, being frequent guests at Yorktown’s Mr. Mouse, several places in hometown Kokomo, Billy’s Lounge in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Artsgarden, Rathskeller and Slippery Noodle in Indianapolis—and this only begins to list their numerous gigging spots, from Ohio and Kentucky to Connecticut!  Recently, the usually electric Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel developed an acoustic version of itself as well, and plays its acoustics gigs with all the finesse of its electric ones.  For the acoustic shows, Mike trades in his electric guitar for a National Steel, Shaun plays acoustic bass guitar, and "Tiny" handles the percussion chores on congas and bongos, playing both with his hands and with sticks.  Although Mike and Steam Shovel have some masterful cover arrangements of Doyle Bramhall’s "Life By The Drop" (made famous by Stevie Ray Vaughan), Bill Wither’s "Ain’t No Sunshine," Marvin Gaye’s "What’s Goin’ On" and a few choice others, the band’s music is 90% originals composed by Mike himself, who is an excellent, truly original songwriter.

            I myself have written on Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel before, and if I found them most praiseworthy, it’s only because the nice words were fully deserved!  I’d like to quote a few of my printed words on Mike and Steam Shovel, as I think they sum up nicely these artists’ strengths.  In "Labor Day Blues at the Indy Rib Fest," written when Mike and the band opened for Buddy Guy in 2005, I wrote:

This writer, an active writer on the blues since 1987, has known Mike Milligan personally since he began his active musical career in the1990s, when I’d hear him at the Slippery Noodle.  Now, whenever I’ve heard him play his guitar these last few years, my mind harkens back those days in the Noodle when I first listened to his playing.  For I’ve become very much aware of how much he has matured as a player over this not-quite-a decade.  I mentioned this to my friend and Rib Fest companion Susan as we both sat there digging this excellent guitar solo that Mike was playing then, and Susan mentioned to me how much she’d noticed Mike Milligan mature as a guitar artist -- in just the past year!  Now, onstage, "The best damn blues band ever" as named by Indianapolis’s renowned blues bar, the Slippery Noodle Inn, stood Mike with his band, Steam Shovel, the whole of Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel consisting of only three people, Mike himself on guitar and vocals, brother Shaun Milligan on bass, and Robert "Tiny" Cook on drums.  Mike stood in front somewhat ahead of the other two, his characteristic gray tweed workman’s cap on his head, and sunburst-color 1961 Fender Stratocaster in hand.  Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel have this remarkably full sound for a trio, filling the audio space fully and completely, and never leaving the listener with a feeling that there’s something lacking.  Perhaps it’s that particular way Mike manages to fill the space with his guitar notes, notes he can use one way to sound the way they would normally come, guitar-like; but Mike can also take the notes he makes on his guitar and give them a deeper, fuller sound, more like those that would come from an organ. (Posted on my Web html, www.frogmajikmusic.com/Georgefishhome.html)

On Mike’s songwriting, I wrote in my article "Blues Against Bush" in Socialism and Democracy 41 (July, 2006):

Mike Milligan is a gentle, humane man devoted to his wife and toddler son, and his original song lyrics partake very much of that gentleness.  Milligan molds his songs into deeply philosophical statements in music that never become preachy.  Specific attestations of this include "Do Whatcha Gotta Do" and "If You Don’t Change,"…Further examples are the songs of honesty and affection he writes of family members.  …The original songs of Mike Milligan resonate for me—a New Left activist in the 1960s—as very palpable expressions of what we meant by our slogan, "The personal is political." (155)

Mike Milligan grew up in a musical family.  His father, Big Mike Milligan, was an active touring rock musician in the 1970s, and both Mikes play frequently together live and on the Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel CDs.  Recently, Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel have scored commercial successes with the Meijer’s superstore chain by having their Live! CD picked for sale in all 181 Meijer’s stores in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky as part of its "Outside the Mainstream" program.  The group’s latest CD, Timing Is Everything, is now for sale at Best Buy locations, and Live! will soon be available there also.  Further, all five Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel CDs are available in most Karma Music outlets.  Quite an accomplishment for a band whose CDs are all self-produced on the band’s own small label.  But, tiny label or not, they are all first-class, and are reviewed below.

THE CDS

Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel’s 1998 debut self-titled CD is the most Stevie Ray Vaughan-ish, most notably on the first two tracks, but already shows Mike out to define himself in his own way.  All the songs on the CD were written by Mike Milligan, and Mike is also leavening his blues guitar here with use of wah-wah pedal and other rock approaches, moving already from derivative blues guitarist to blues-rock original.

The second CD, 2001’s When I Get There, is another CD of all Mike Milligan originals, with three of its 14 tracks instrumentals.  Mike plays all instruments on the CD, but, harbingers of what was to come, brother Shaun joins him on bass, as does his father on guitar.

With the third CD, 2004’s If You Don’t Change, Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel has found its own unique, particular groove.  The group is established as a trio now, with Mike on lead guitar and vocals, Shaun Milligan on bass, and Derek Felix on drums (later replaced by Robert "Tiny" Cook as permanent drummer).  The songs on the CD are for the most part philosophical and pensive, for at the time Mike had suffered the loss of several friends due to drug overdoses.  There is a tribute track to his father, on which his father plays, now become a Mike Milligan staple on his CDs, a sound bite from his young son, Maceo, another Mike Milligan CD staple, and only one cover, most appropriately Doyle Bramhall’s "Life By The Drop."  If You Don’t Change also marks the first recording on the group’s Mojo Hut label, and shows the group now has both a Web site and an e-mail address.

2004 also brought out the Live! CD, recorded at Indianapolis’s renowned blues club, the Slippery Noodle Inn.  The 15 tracks feature 13 Mike Milligan originals from the three earlier CDs, with two new covers from Marvin Gaye and Al Green.  Big Mike Milligan joins the younger Mike on "Like Father, Like Son" and "On the Day" is sung for his wife Suzanne to celebrate her birthday.  As mentioned above, Mike Milligan is very much a devoted family man, married for ten years, who willingly acknowledges how much family support has meant for him over the years.  Live! is also Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel’s best-selling CD to date,  and features sleeve notes from Matthew Socey, host of "Blues House Party" on Indianapolis public radio station WFYI.

The group’s latest CD, Timing Is Everything, came out in late 2007, and firmly establishes what can be called the Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel’s signature sound:  an insidiously soft, deeply emotive approach that also contains a hard-rocking edge.  This is most notably brought out here on the first track, a cover of Bill Wither’s "Ain’t No Sunshine."  As with the first CD, horns are featured on a couple of tracks, and as much as this writer admires all of Mike Milligan’s songs, this CD contains his most exemplary one to date, the very poignant "This Is Not Goodbye," a especially powerful knockout.

Space prevents more than a thumbnail sketch of the five Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel CDs to date, and even more words could never really do justice to, or adequately describe, the music—which is best heard, and always a delight.  In addition to the outlets mentioned above, all the CDs may be purchased online at the band’s Web site, http://mikemilligan.homestead.com, which gives touring schedules, press notices, pictures, and much more. 

Slave fences- Miles and miles of seemingly endless, hand-built, field rock fence in Lexington, KY... Built by slaves... Forced to clear the fileds for crops... Sold in the auctions in a very familiar location that i do not care to revisit.

Taken from website: http://www.visitlex.com/quick/heritage.html

African-American Heritage in Kentucky

From the adversities of slavery to achievements in education, racing, business and industry, the story of African-Americans in Lexington and the Bluegrass is a multifaceted and fascinating legacy.

As bondsmen, African-Americans arrived in the Bluegrass with the earliest settlers. Lexington became a major slave market to the Deep South. Cheapside, adjacent to the Fayette County Courthouse, was the site of slave auctions until 1864.

I am NOT your slave. You dont own me. I am free. Music makes me free. I am a man. I am a father, a husband, a brother, a son. Not your slave. A Slave to none, i am. 

Borrowed from Andy Kennedy's blog @ woodhenge studio...

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Well, it is...... What else can I say? No rules. Codes of conduct, yes... and those are thrown out the door rather quickly. Right?  Of course...

We do what we gotta do, what's best for us, even if it breaks someone's heart...and in return hurt ourselves beacuse of it....

Life goes on, and i am trying to live.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.........

HI All!

 Haven't written in a while (depression can do that to you, but bring you out at the same time!) We just played the Indy Jazz FEst in Indianapolis. What a weekend! Let's recap.....

Friday night June 15, we played outdoors near Muncie, IN til 1am. I didnt leave til 2am. Got to Indy, a 1 hr drive, slept in my van til sunrise. Had to be at Military Park /IJF Grounds for WISH TV interview and performance at 7am! I got to sleep on a cot in the hallway of some  IUPUI building, the English Dept. I think, for a couple of hrs during a large meeting of IJF team workers. Then we played at 330pm! Stayed awake til Al Green played at 930. I am the only person to get a foto with Al Green at Indy Jazz fest 07 (i think)! He showed up in a limo. went to the dressing room, got on a golf cart (that's when i intercepted, sorry Gwyn!)) and Wooosh! Off to the stage. Immediately after Love and Happiness he jumped into the limo and Zipped off! I kinda stalked him and tracked him (thanks Less and Security Man 526), plus I blocked his transport, so they had no choice but to run me over! Then on Sunday, I left our Fathers Day gathering at my folks' place early to listen to, meet, and hang out a bit with James Hunter, from London. If you like Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, or James Brown, you should own this man's music! What a cool weekend! Oh! and Steam Shovel did a bang up job too on Saturday! I felt like we gave a terriffic (pat pat pat) show and kicked off the Saturday right....Many many thanks to Joel Henderson, Matt  Socey, Claire and Co., Kim, Gwyn and everyone who brought us back to IJF. We can't wait to do it again!